by Webb, Peggy
“Then what are you doing?” His eyes were level with her bare calves. He thought the scenery outside his window had vastly improved.
“I’m sight-seeing,” she said. “Sunday Cove by night.” His face was so close to her legs, she could feel his breath.
“What a remarkable idea.” he said. “Do you mind if 1 join you?” He reached out and caught her legs.
“Let go of me. Go back to your party.”
He didn’t let go. “The party?” Tightening his hold, he caressed her legs. “I would keep you here all night except that my brothers are waiting to meet you.”
“Waiting? How did you know I’d be here?”
“Justin.”
“And my Aunt Syl.” She tried to be furious, but Todd was still caressing her legs. The best she could manage was a small scowl. And even that was hard. What she really wanted to do was swing outside his apartment all night and let him rub her legs. She decided she might even take up dangling from ropes as a hobby.
“And your Aunt Syl.”
“You knew about this all along? Why didn’t you stop them?”
“It was too late.” He leaned far out the window so he could reach up and circle Amy’s upper thighs. “I’m going to get you down now, love. Untie the knot at your waist.”
“I’d just as soon swing here until Aunt Syl repents and pulls me back up.” She didn’t know how she managed to say that with his face pressing against the front of her legs.
“This is no time to be stubborn. You might get hurt.”
“You should have thought of that before you cooked up this scheme.”
“I’m not going to respond to that false accusation until I get you down. Unite that knot,” he demanded. “Trust me. I won’t drop you.” His arms tightened around her.
Secure in his grip, she loosened the knot and put her hands on his shoulders. He carefully let her slide downward in his arms until he had her around the waist. Her feet were now touching the windowsill.
“Bend down. Amy, and I’ll pull you in.”
“You can let go now.”
“Never.”
He pulled her inside.
“I’ll leave you to your schemes now,” she said when her feet were safely on the floor.
“I would never have been a party to such a scheme. Justin and your aunt planned the whole thing. You were already out the window when Justin confided in me. Aunt Syl would have loved that scene. It was almost murder for real. He swore in blood that the rope and pulley were safe.” Todd buried his face in her hair. “You feel so good. It seems like years since Sunday.”
It did to Amy also, but she wasn’t about to confess that to Todd. Hadn’t she spent the last two days trying to get him out of her mind, out of her heart?
“Nothing has changed, Todd,” she said quietly. “Please let go.”
He released her immediately. “At least meet my brothers before you go.”
“What’s the point?”
He saw the stubborn tilt of her chin, the remoteness in her blue eyes. He felt helpless against the barrier she had erected between them. If she had put a name to her fear, he could have dealt with it. But she refused to name it and he could only guess. He suspected its name was Death, that grim reaper that had prematurely claimed both her parents and her husband. Her dream had been the biggest clue.
A longing to shield her welled up inside him, to protect her from everything bad that would ever happen. He reached for her again, then let his hand drop without touching her. Now was not the time to press, he decided. Dangling from a rope was enough trauma for one evening. He’d pretend to be lighthearted even if the effort killed him.
He smiled. “The point, love, is that my brothers have never met an inventor.”
“All right. Just this once. I’ll meet them—as an inventor and nothing more.”
“Agreed.”
Chapter 10
Amy hadn’t meant to be enchanted by Todd’s family. She had never intended to stay beyond the first hello. But now she stood in the middle of the party, surrounded by three men who were as charming as they were good-looking. Todd’s brothers seemed to be trying to outdo one another in claiming her attention. They asked her about her inventions and regaled her with funny stories of their childhood escapades. She laughed so much she completely forgot she was suffering from a broken heart.
Todd beamed at them from across the room. “There’s nothing like having reinforcements,” he said as Justin passed by with an open bottle of champagne.
“I’ve discovered that cupid often needs assistance, sir,” Justin said.
“Right. But don’t you and Aunt Syl get any more ideas. I still haven’t forgiven you for the rope and pulley trick.”
“All’s well that ends well,” Justin said.
Todd laughed. “It hasn’t ended yet. Serve the champagne, Shakespeare.”
As Justin moved away, Todd’s attention returned to Amy. She was so interested in the pictures Jeff was showing that she automatically lifted her glass for a refill when Justin paused beside her. Todd smiled at her animated face. He knew what the pictures were. He figured he’d seen them no less than a hundred times. Jeff was the Cunningham family’s proud papa. His brothers teased him about carrying so many family photographs in his pockets. They often said he would soon have to take a wheelbarrow around to haul his pictures.
He was also the reason Todd had left Baltimore and moved to Sunday Cove. When Jeff’s engineering firm relocated him and his wife Bonnie and their brood, Todd had missed his brother so much he’d followed him to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Of course, that was only half the story. The other half was that he’d been dumped by his fiancée of six years, he needed a change and Jeff portrayed Sunday Cove as a semi-tropical paradise.
Todd eased closer as Bonnie, a vivacious blonde, joined the group. He was irresistibly drawn to Amy’s glowing face as she talked about the family pictures.
“Such beautiful children!” he heard her exclaim.
“I won’t argue with you,” Jeff said. “My four kids have to be the smartest, handsomest kids in Sunday Cove.”
Bonnie took Jeff’s arm and gave him an adoring smile. “Listen to the proud papa talk.” Turning to Amy, she said, “You have to take what he says with a grain of salt. He’s prejudiced.”
Amy scanned the photographs again. There were three boys and one girl, ranging from age twelve all the way down to three. The oldest boy, Ricky, had flaming red hair, but the three other children were dark-haired, blue-eyed replicas of Jeff.
“Ricky’s hair is gorgeous,” Amy said. “It reminds me of a sunset.”
“He has his father’s hair,” Bonnie said.
Startled, Amy looked at Jeff’s dark curls.
“My first husband,” Bonnie explained. “He was killed when Ricky was three. Ricky also inherited his freckles.”
“But he has his dad’s sparkling personality,” Jeff said.
Bonnie laughed and pinched his cheek. “And his big ego.”
Amy glanced in confusion from one to the other. How could all this love and laughter have come out of tragedy? What had given Bonnie the courage to risk loving again?
Todd walked quietly up behind her and slipped an arm around her shoulders. “It’s remarkable what marriage can do to a man,” he said. “You should have seen Jeff in his bachelor days. He had the name of every woman in Baltimore in his little black book. Mike and Wayne and I thought he would never tie the knot.”
“And now we’re thinking the same thing about you, Todd,” Mike added.
“Doggoned right,” Wayne said. “Isn’t that a gray hair I see near your temple?”
Jeff punched Todd’s arm. “You ought to try it, old man. There’s nothing like finding your only pair of clean socks being used to plug up a hole in the magazine basket.”
“Are you complaining?” Bonnie asked.
“Who me?” Jeff was the picture of innocence. “You know I prefer to wear my shoes without socks. It adds
a little pizzazz to my life.”
Bonnie turned to Amy. “He gets like this when he’s hungry. Let me feed him before he really says something crazy.” The two of them walked toward the buffet, smiling at each other as if they had a million private jokes.
“Food. That’s a great idea,” Wayne said. “Follow that couple, Mike.” They left Amy and Todd alone.
Todd squeezed Amy’s shoulders. “What do you think of my brothers?”
“I think your brothers are terrific. And so is Bonnie.”
“They have great ideas too.”
“Todd, don’t start.”
“All right. I promise to be good.” He leaned down and nuzzled her neck.
“You call that being good?”
“Yes. I didn’t promise to be a saint. Only a saint could be around you and resist touching you.”
She knew she should pull away, but she couldn’t. She blamed it on the champagne. She knew she should go, but she didn’t have the will. She blamed it on the party atmosphere.
“Nobody loves a saint,” she said.
“What about a judge?”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Some people find them tolerable.”
“Are inventors among that group?”
“I really couldn’t say.”
“Why not?”
“My head is filled with champagne bubbles. I can’t think straight.”
“Then I’ll do the thinking for both of us. Wait right here while I get you some food.”
“I have to go.”
“No, you don’t.” He maneuvered her into a chair and joined the group at the buffet.
A distinguished-looking gray-haired man approached Amy. Smiling, he sat in the chair beside her. “You must be Amy Logan.” He held out a slim hand. “I’m Randall Crane, an associate of Todd’s.”
Amy liked the man immediately. He had a frank and friendly manner that made talking with him easy. “Yes, I’m Amy Logan. How did you know?”
“Todd has described you perfectly. Besides, you have a certain notoriety around the courthouse since your last appearance with Mrs. Hildenbrand.”
Amy laughed. “That was the highlight of my disturbing-the-peace career.”
A tall woman with burnished silver hair joined them. She crossed her slim legs as she sat beside them. “I see Randall has found you. He’s been dying to meet you ever since you brought your robot into Todd’s courtroom. He says nothing like that ever happens in his courtroom.” When she smiled, a fine network of lines radiated from her hazel eyes. “Hi. I’m Joyce, Randall’s better half.”
“A statement I’ll not dispute, my dear.” Randall smiled fondly at his wife.
Amy was so enthralled with the lovely couple that she didn’t even notice Todd until she felt his hand on her shoulder. Even though he was standing behind her, she would have known his hand if a dozen others had been touching her. It felt solid and warm. It felt like a promise.
Joyce smiled up at Todd. “You must bring Amy to visit us, Todd. I want to hear all about her inventions and her famous aunt. And I especially want to know how she got up enough courage to make a shambles out of the orderly Judge Cunningham’s courtroom. Nobody’s ever done that before.”
“I wouldn’t call it a shambles,” Todd said.
“Oh, dear,” Amy said. “Did I ruin his reputation?”
“On the contrary,” Randall assured her. “You added a little spice to his image. Sometimes we judges are considered to be colorless old relics hiding in our dusty robes.”
Joyce patted her husband’s cheek. “You’re far from colorless, dear.” Turning to Amy, she said, “Remind me to tell you about the time he stuck a toothpick in his cigar so he could mesmerize the jury with an ash that wouldn’t fall off.”
Amy laughed. “I’d love to hear about that.”
Joyce stood, pulling her husband up with her. “We’ve monopolized you long enough. I do believe Todd’s going to mutilate that poor snack plate he’s holding if we don’t leave you two alone.”
“She’s a wise and brilliant woman,” Todd said as he sat in Joyce’s vacated chair. “Have a shrimp.” He outlined Amy’s lips with a fingertip as he held the shrimp toward her.
“I really shouldn’t.” Considering that his finger had set her mouth on fire, it was a miracle she could speak. “I have to be going.”
But she didn’t go. She ate the shrimp ... and the liver pate and the cheese straws and the strawberries big enough to pass as apples. She drank the champagne and talked to the people. She learned that the man who lived next door to her always had a secret yen to own a robot, and she promised to demonstrate Herman for him. She made friends with her across-the-hall neighbor, the one who had charged her with disturbing the peace. She even charmed the old sourpuss who lived across from Todd, and who espoused the philosophy that the whole world was going to Hades in a hand basket.
And always, there was Todd. Whether he was beside her, touching her shoulder, leaning down to whisper into her ear, or was across the room from her, sending signals with his remarkable eyes, she was always aware of his presence.
She didn’t want the party to end. She wanted to shut out the real world and live forever in the security and gaiety of Todd’s apartment. She wanted to bottle the laughter and the joy. She wanted to keep the bright lights and the music going, the champagne flowing. But most of all, she wanted to hold Todd at her side forever.
Amy stayed until all the guests were gone. She was slightly tipsy on champagne and totally drunk on love. But she wouldn’t have admitted it if grizzly bears had been threatening her.
Todd was across the room, showing the last guest out. She smiled crookedly at him and tried to think how she might get upstairs without falling victim to his charm. Her legs went weak as he came toward her. All he needed to do was crook his finger and she would go flying into his arms. She would love him one more time, and then she would get on with the painful business of putting him out of her life.
He didn’t crook his finger. He knelt beside her chair and took her hand. “Thank you for staying, Amy.”
She resisted the urge to reach out and touch his hair. “I’m a weak character. I took the easy way out. Going would have taken more courage than staying.”
“You’re not weak; you’re strong.”
“Not like Bonnie.”
“No. Not like Bonnie. Each person is different, Amy. Everybody handles tragedy in his own way. Some, like Bonnie, reach out to others while some have to go through the healing process alone.”
Amy squeezed his hand. Even if she couldn’t marry Todd, she thought he was probably the best friend she would ever have. “When I put away the paintings, I thought the healing was complete.”
“It was so far as Tim is concerned, but you’ve lost more than a husband. I think you never came to terms with losing your parents.”
“I did. I had Aunt Syl. I had a happy childhood.”
“I don’t dispute that. Your dream gave me the clue, though. I think you’re afraid to risk loving and losing again.”
“Then why are you bothering with me? Why don’t you find somebody who isn’t afraid?”
“Because I intend to break through that barrier you’ve put up. I intend to confront your old dragon, fear, and slay it.”
“I never knew judges were dragon slayers.”
“Judges are many things, including gallant knights.” He lifted her from her chair. “And to show you how gallant I am, I’m taking you back to your apartment instead of into my bedroom where you belong.”
Her knees went weak at the thought of his bedroom. She knew how the room would look in the moonlight. She knew exactly how the sheets would feel. She knew precisely how Todd’s head would look on the pillow next to hers.
She gave him an enigmatic smile. “Is that gallantry or fear? Perhaps you’re afraid I’ll say no again.”
He was delighted with her comeback. “Perhaps I am. Why don’t you do a little dragon slaying of your own?”
�
��Not tonight. I’m fresh out of dragon bait.”
Todd didn’t know how he managed to get her out of his apartment without giving in to temptation. All he knew was that he was finally standing outside her door and he couldn’t let her go.
“Something to keep the dragons away,” he said, and then he leaned in for a long, searching kiss.
When it seemed they might stay locked together in the darkened hallway forever, she said, “I like the way you chase dragons, Judge.”
“If they bother you tonight, give me a call. You should see my technique for putting them to rout in a bedroom.”
“I already have. Good night, Todd.”
“Goodnight, Amy.”
He stood in the empty hallway for a full two minutes after she’d disappeared inside. His breathing was ragged and his heart was pumping full blast. As he looked at her closed door, he vowed that he would tear down her walls of fear, even if it took the rest of his life.
Inside her apartment, Amy leaned against her door. If she had been confused Sunday, she was thoroughly bewildered now. How could she resolve to forget Todd, then go so willingly into his arms? How could she vow to put him out of her life forever, then kiss him as if she would never let go?
She was tempted to open the door and invite him in. She was tempted to let him examine her dragons, label them and slay them, one by one. Could he? Or was that something she had to do herself?
At last she heard his footsteps in the hall. The moment for exploring fears had passed. It was just as well, she decided. After swinging from her window by a rope and drinking two glasses of champagne, she was in no condition to slay mice, let alone dragons.
o0o
Amy slept late on Wednesday. When she awoke, Aunt Syl was in the kitchen surrounded by pots and pans.
“Good morning, dear,” Aunt Syl said cheerfully. “I’m cooking breakfast. Pancakes.”
“You’re cooking?”
“It’s a peace offering. To make up for the rope and pulley.”
“Nothing can make up for that trick, Aunt Syl.”
Amy’s smile spoiled the intended effect of her words.
Aunt Syl didn’t miss a thing. Not the smile or the softening of the face or the sparkling eyes. “I can see how upset you are. How was the party?”
